Love Your Legs This February: The Link Between Vein Health and Heart Health

Vascular Vein Centers has been providing Central Florida patients with the highest quality varicose vein care for a quarter of a century. It is the only IAC-accredited Vein Center for diagnosis and treatment of venous complications, including varicose veins and related complications.  Vascular Vein Centers provides six offices in College Park of Orlando, Kissimmee, Lake Mary, Waterford Lakes of East Orlando, Davenport/Haines City, and The Villages. Schedule an appointment at 877-244-8558 or book online.

No matter which form of venous disease our clinical staff helps you improve, heart-healthy living is important to consider since heart health can affect leg health and varicose veins.    

In recognition of American Heart Month this February, our board-certified experts are taking a closer look at the two-way connection between vein health and heart health — including how you can better care for both.

Your continuous cardiovascular loop

To understand how heart health can be associated with vein health, it helps to know how your vascular system works — specifically, how your heart, arteries, and veins work together in a “continuous loop” to circulate blood through your body. In fact, compromised heart function can lead to venous congestion and increase the risk of varicose veins. The information below will help us understand the impact of this  “continuous loop”.

Heart to arteries

Your heart muscle pumps oxygen-rich blood into your central arteries, which carry it to your head, extremities, and every area of your body. We begin here with oxygen-rich blood pumped from the heart to the body after the blood has received oxygen from the air we breathe into our lungs.  Once in the arteries, oxygen attaches to a protein in your blood called hemoglobin. 

Arteries to capillaries

This oxygenated blood is ultimately carried to various tissues. Arteries become smaller the further they are from the heart, becoming their smallest as “arterioles”. Each arteriole endpoint is in muscles, organs, and tissues, where it supplies oxygen and other nutrients as it becomes a capillary bed. 

Capillaries to veins

Once the oxygen in the blood has been used by muscles, other tissues, organs, and the brain, the blood becomes deoxygenated. This blood then travels from the capillary bed’s smallest veins to larger veins and eventually back to the heart. 

Heart to lungs to heart

Back at the heart, this deoxygenated blood is then pumped to the blood vessels in the lungs, where it releases the carbon dioxide as we breathe out and picks up new oxygen as we breathe in.   

How heart disease can affect your veins and complications 

When your heart doesn’t pump blood efficiently, and becase of the “continuous loop” between arteries and veins, it can lead to a “circulatory backup” in the veins that causes swelling in the lower extremities and eventually this causes swelling in the lower extremities and can eventually force fluids out into your tissues, where the tissue begins to break down and form a skin ulcer. Indeed, leg swelling, skin changes, and slow-healing wounds (ulcers) may be a sign of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), heart failure, or both. 

DVT, or a blood clot in a deep vein, is a less common risk from venous insufficiency, especially if being treated, but when it occurs, it can lead to a life-threatening cardiovascular emergency. This happens when a DVT breaks free and travels to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism (PE). However, the more common risk of venous insufficiency is skin breakdown, leading to skin ulcers and wound care. Skin changes in the lower leg can often be seen even before varicose veins are noticed. 

Love your entire cardiovascular system.

Venous diseases and heart diseases share the same set of risk factors, including excess weight, diabetes, hypertension, inactivity, unhealthy eating patterns, advancing age, alcohol misuse,  smoking, and family heritage.

Luckily, a heart-healthy lifestyle is also a vein-healthy one. This includes:

• Healthy and consistent body weight management
• Blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar control
• Heart-healthy eating patterns; staying well hydrated
• Daily exercise: including walking, and frequent movement breaks when sitting (venous pressure in the legs rises substantially when sitting and reduces when walking!). 
• Smoking cessation and limited alcohol consumption 
• Medical-grade compression stockings are worn if any symptoms of venous complications in the legs 

Medical-grade graduated compression stockings that provide this specific type of compression therapy are very helpful for reducing venous complications, in addition to varicose vein treatment, and for improving lower extremity circulation. 

Vascular Vein Centers can help with this and determine whether a further personal care plan is needed for your leg health. Call 407-244-8558 or schedule your appointment online.